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Answering Nathan: Non-White Icons: To Venerate, Or Not To Venerate?

 My brother from another mother, Nathan H., made a highly pertinent comment on my post, "Jesus' Skin Color (Again)." Essentially, we can venerate a White icon of Jesus, as long as we're equally ready to venerate any other one as well. I am, and I have. It got me to thinkin': Anyone remember a comedy skit where the dude is praying in a church, calls upon Jesus, and a legit Black American Jesus shows up? I wanted to laugh, but it does get uncomfortable at points. Jesus is Jesus; we gotta be careful, because His character is still something we're bound to, and that's easy to mess up whilst making a point. Jesus is a Jew, for clarity's sake, so I'd be as stunned if he looked Swedish (Sorry, Max) as I would if he looked West African. But I'm expecting brown, for the record.

I want the Apostles to make fun of us in Heaven: "Man, there are a lot of really white people here! I'll bet they didn't like the sun on the old Earth!"

There are saints purified in the suffering of slums and ghettos, and there will be more, God willing. I have no idea what perfectly holy rap music will sound like, but Lecrae seems to know something about it.

Parents and older comedians, teachers, etc.: Gen Alpha slang has nothing to do with the generation; it's Black urban slang. Most of the slang of teenagers for the last 40 years or more is Black urban slang. It sounds "funny" from white people, precisely because we left urban areas en masse decades ago. It doesn't sound native for characters like "Carlton Banks" either, because the story is that Uncle Phil and Aunt Viv got out of the ghetto. In pop culture or real life, if a Black person is accused of not being Black, or "Black enough," it's because they don't have the cultural markers of sharing the urban experience of poverty, at least in language.

Ralphie May (RIP) and Gary Owen are white comedians who successfully communicate in the Black urban vernacular. They did so pretty successfully, because it's generally believed that they share the cultural experience. When it doesn't seem authentic, well, see "Vanilla Ice."

[Hey, isn't this about icons?--ed.] Yes. Y'all can bring me as many non-white icons as you can find. No cap.    

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